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Some police forces 'given up investigating' certain crimes

Some crimes are being ignored by some police forces because they have "given up investigating them", a watchdog has warned.

A report by Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found there was a "mindset" among some forces of doing "little or nothing more than recording a crime without taking further action".

The watchdog claimed offences such as criminal damage or vehicle crime are "on the verge of being decriminalised" as some forces have given up investigating them.

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Acpo: Austerity policing means 'prioritising calls'

Austerity has forced police to use their time more efficiently and this has meant prioritising calls from victims of alleged crimes, the Association of Chief Police Officers said.

President Sir Hugh Orde said:

We accept that the public has a natural expectation to have a positive and supportive experience of interacting with the police service when they have been a victim of crime.

The reality of austerity in policing means that forces must ensure that their officers' time is put to best use and this means prioritising calls.

In some instances, this may mean that a report of a crime where the victim is not in imminent danger or the offender is not still in the immediate vicinity will be dealt with over the phone or by other means than the deployment of an officer to the scene. This is not an abdication of forces' duty of care to victims.

– Sir Hugh Orde

17 police forces 'failed to identify vulnerable callers'

Some 17 police constabularies in England and Wales have such a disinterested mindset towards some crimes they "failed to identify vulnerable callers", a watchdog has found.

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) found:

  • A total of 37 out of 43 forces in England and Wales used a system in which a call-handler assessed whether an officer should attend the scene of an incident.
  • But in some forces, call-handlers could not accurately describe what amounted to a risk or threat.
  • Attendance rates at crime scenes in the year to November 30 2013 varied widely between forces from 39% in Warwickshire to 100% in Cleveland.
  • This means that nearly two-thirds of crime scenes in Warwickshire were not attended by a police officer.
  • And in 17 forces, the Inspectorate found police community support officers (PCSOs) were being asked to investigate crimes beyond their role profile and training.

Police 'on the verge' of decriminalising major crimes

Offences like criminal damage or vehicle crime are so badly investigated they are "on the verge of being decriminalised" in some parts of the UK, a police watchdog has warned.

Read: Spending cuts put 'smaller police forces in jeopardy'

HMIC did not single out staff in their report but blamed a mindset that dogged a whole force. Credit: PA

Her Majesty's Inspectorate of Constabulary (HMIC) released a scathing report into the "mindset" of some forces, which the watchdog said lead to victims being asked to investigate the crimes they had reported.

Victims of high-volume offences like vehicle crime and "burglaries of properties other than dwellings" were asked questions by call-handlers to assess the likelihood of the crime being solved, inspectors found.

Some forces had asked victims to check if there was CCTV or fingerprint evidence available, and interview their own neighbours.

Inspector of Constabulary Roger Baker, who led the inspection, said: "Effectively what's happened is a number of crimes are on the verge of being decriminalised. So it's not the fault of the individual staff, it's a mindset thing that's crept in to policing to say 'we've almost given up'."

Read: Crime falls 15% in England and Wales

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